It’s About Beauty From Ashes

If you hang around here long, you’re going to hear “it’s about beauty from ashes…” So what does that actually mean and what are we implying?

We borrowed that phrase from Isaiah 61:3, which speaks of the future restoration of God’s people. In Luke 4, Jesus stands up in the temple and proclaims the words of Isaiah and declares Himself to be the One sent by God to preach good news to the poor, release for captives and freedom for the oppressed. Jesus is the fulfilment of Isaiah’s declaration that beauty will come from ashes.

At the feet of Jesus, ash is ALWAYS transformed into beauty.

He takes all the devastation we face and works it for our good. What is laid ruined becomes fruitful abundance.

We see this in the overarching narrative of Scripture. From the garden we see the ravages of disobedience and the sacrifice that covers shame and sin, pointing to a coming Rescuer. We see an Israelite boy sold into slavery and raised up to save a nation. A sinful, broken, but contrite man after God’s own heart becomes an author of songs we still sing today. We see a rebel disciple who disowns and retreats become the rock the Church is built on. And foremost of all, we see a Savior, crushed, beaten, murdered and then raised to life victorious.

It’s about beauty from ashes.

So what does this mean for us? It means that the very worst things done to us and the very worst suffering we face can be transformed into beauty in the hands of Jesus. None of it is wasted. All of it has purpose and value. Ashes are never the final word. Beauty is coming forth, even now, even today.

“Of one thing I am perfectly sure: God's story never ends with 'ashes.”
Elisabeth Elliot